Originally from Dublin, Gerry Smyth is Professor of Irish Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University, and has published widely on various aspects of Irish literature and music. His books include The Novel and the Nation (1997), Space and the Irish Critical Imagination (2001), Noisy Island: A Short History of Irish Popular Music (2005) and most recently The Judas Kiss: Treason and Betrayal in Six Modern Irish Novels (2015). Smyth is also an actor and musician: he has written, produced and performed a number of Irish-themed plays and albums including The Brother (2011), James Joyce's Chamber Music (2012), Will the Real Flann O'Brien ...? (2013) and Nora and Jim (2015). He is the Principal Co-ordinator of an international research network entitled Marginal Irish Modernisms, and is currently working on two projects: a critical study of Lord Dunsany, and a monograph on music in the life and literature of James Joyce.